Despite the downturn, hordes of investment board sites
purporting to offer the latest and greatest stock tips still crowd
the Internet. But in today's more conservative market,
discriminating investors are looking for substance rather than
sound bites. Fortunately, the post-Enron era has spurred a handful
of boards that explore big-picture issues of interest to investors,
such as corporate governance and mutual fund fees. The site
www.eraider.com, for example, is devoted largely to shareholder
activism, charging that "owning a stock is owning a business,
with all the rights and responsibilities that implies."

Other message board sites seek to up their expertise. At
www.marketocracy.com, only portfolio managers whose
performances rank in the top 25 percent can post missives. The
Value Investors Club is even more discriminating: It's 250
investors are pre-screened by Columbia Business School professor
Joel Greenblatt and partners from his New York City-based hedge
fund Gotham Capital. Want to see if you make the grade? Try it out
at www.valueinvestorsclub.com.

Giving You the Finger

Tired of the hassles of handling cash? With biometric point of
sale systems, customers can leave their wallets at home and pay by
fingerprint.

"There's an easy enrollment where an employee verifies
a customer's identification and enters that information into
the system," explains Ron Smith, president and CEO of Round
Rock, Texas-based Biometric Access Corp., which makes the Secure
Touch-n-Pay system. "Customers put each index finger down and
enroll the forms of payment they want to use. From then on, all
they have to do is punch in their VIP numbers and put their fingers
down."

It seems like science fiction, but the system is familiar to
Kroger store customers in Bryan/College Station, Texas, where
Secure Touch-n-Pay is being tested. And McDonald's patrons in
Fresno, California, are using a similar program by Oakland,
California-based Indivos, a Biometric Access competitor.